Teacher: Mr. Michaud Office Location: Room 207 Office Hours: 1-3 Mondays and Wednesdays E-mail: tyler.m.michaud@maine.edu
Summary of Unit
Learning how to develop an opinion, support it, and present it in a professional manner is crucial in a variety of settings: whether it be at a business meeting, written on an application, dinner out with a friend, or in the classroom. Over the course of the unit students will develop an understanding of persuasive writing. Through the exploration of editing, revising, planning, rewriting, relative vocabulary, and investigations of audience and personal explanations students will develop the skills needed to write a professional persuasive piece.
Establish Goals
Common Core State Standards Content Area: English Grade level: 11 & 12 Domain: Writing Cluster: Production and Distribution of Writing Standard #5: Develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach, focusing on addressing what is most significant for a specific purpose and audience.
Students will understand that
•strong writing is achieved through planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or changing the approach of the work. •establishing the most significant vein of their work and developing a voice and thesis that portrays it is essential to a well-developed piece. •considering the intended audience is imperative to making your voice, as a writer, heard.
Essential Questions
•How can I revise, edit, or rewrite my work to strengthen its potency? •Why is my thesis significant to what I am hoping to achieve? •How is my audience going to respond to the manner in which I portrayed my view?
Students will know
•Sequences and timelines: How to establish a factually sound and clearly focused persuasive essay. •Terminology: Claims, radical revisions, reverse outlining, thesis. •Critical details: How vocabulary and tone influence the audiences interpretation of the persuasive essay.
Students will be able to
•express their voice in a concise and supported manner. •evaluate work for improvements to support their understanding of revision techniques. •produce an outline. •infer their perspective professionally and respectively. •consider the opposing opinion and use it to strengthen their work. •recognize the intended audience.
Performance Task Overview
After becoming the head anchor at your network news station things have become rather slow, what could you possibly do now after reaching the top? Luckily, the president of the network feels the same way and has been asking for fresh ideas, specifically, he mentioned that you could lead your own editorial! So now what? First choose a topic that impassions you, one where even the thought of it makes you feel as if you could talk forever! Develop the idea and consider how your own opinion will be interpreted by your audience. Will they agree? If not, what awesome mind powers could you use to change their opinion? Also, remember that your audience is different than someone else's, so what do they want to see? Come up with an iMovie presentation of your incredibly interesting editorial to show to the board of producers and the network president; if this works out you could be on your way to having you very own talk show! All you have to do is be selected: fortunately, you are the head anchor so it should be a piece of cake, right?
Expectations
Absences: The best way to succeed in your classes is to attend every class. However, life happens and sometimes you cannot make class. If this happens it is your responsibility to contact me to receive any work that you may have missed. Any work that you missed must be turned in within one class week for credit; for example, if you are back in school on Monday, then the following Monday is when the work will be due. If for whatever reason you will not be able to meet this deadline you must contact me ahead of time, be prepared to give me a reason and to provide a date that you will give me the work. Note: If you do not contact me ahead of time your work will not be accepted after the week-long grace period.
Plagiarism: Plagiarism is the act of taking another person's work and trying to pass it off as your own. I expect citations for any work in which you referenced an outside source, no exceptions. However, this does not mean I will not allow you the opportunity to fix it up, though after one revision any plagiarism present will be subject to school policy. Additionally, websites such as Turnitin.com will be used to monitor the originality of all students' work.
Assignments: All work should be completed on by the due date as a realistic amount of time will be allotted for all assignments. If there is any doubt about the fairness of the time given bring it to my attention and be prepared to support it; I am not unreasonable, in a case like this due dates will negotiable. Furthermore, sometimes things in life happen and you will not be able to complete the work on time. If this happens it is the student's responsibility to contact me ahead of time and make arrangements for an alternate due date.
Classroom Expectations: In the classroom, everybody will treat each other with respect. Any malicious or negative behavior will be handled immediately; I have a no tolerance policy on this. Also, in class I expect everybody's full attention and participation, if you have a thought or question please share it, chances are that somebody else has the same one. Finally, just come to class positive and with an eagerness to expand your horizons. Education is not meant to upset you, rather nurture and support your passions!
Benchmarks
•Garage Band: After exploring the affects of writing concisely and supportively students will have learned the necessary tools to understand and implement words usefully. To further explore this, students will choose a poem and investigate its meaning and record themselves, using Garage Band, reciting it and using meaningful vocal fluctuations, pauses, and other spoken devices, to get the poems point across. After which, students will write a justification for their performance as well as their poem analysis.
•Google Docs: At this point students will have their last draft before their final work complete. Students will upload their work to Google Docs and make it available to their peers. Each students will be expected to read multiple essays and leave feed back, as well as justifications for their comments, to prove that they have a firm understanding of the lesson.
•Inspiration: This is the first lesson in the persuasive writing unit. Due to this, students will still be fairly naive in the manners of writing for this unit, because of which students will be given explicit instructions to create an outline, using Inspiration, for a previously discussed topic. Throughout the course of the unit this topic will continually evolve and mature into a strong final paper and presentation that will concretely illustrate the students' abilities.
•Read and Write: Students will have been divided into two large groups: each group representing one perspective in a class wide debate. Using Read and Write students will create a strong outline showing they have investigated the topic and developed strategies for overcoming the perspective of the other side; doing which, will perpetuate their ability to interpret and use opposing opinion in one's own work.
•Pages: Each student will be assigned a person with many characteristics; the students' job is to develop an understanding of their persona and create a brochure, using Pages, profiling the character and stating what they would like to observe in a persuasive piece.
•iMovie: Finally, the unit's last project is an iMovie. Using the topic discussed in their persuasive essays students will produce a news editorial. In each presentation, students will be judged on their ability to interpret and apply all previous lessons into one large production. The students will play a news anchor for a major news network (CNN, FOX, ABC, NBC, Comedy Central, or other that must be approved by the instructor) and stylize their performance and production to appeal to the audience of the network they chose.
Grading Scale
A (93 -100), A- (90 - 92), B+ (87 - 89), B (83 - 86), B- (80 - 82), C+(77 - 79), C (73-76), C- (70 - 72), D+(67 - 69), D (63 - 66), D- (60 - 62), F (0 - 59).
Office Location: Room 207
Office Hours: 1-3 Mondays and Wednesdays
E-mail: tyler.m.michaud@maine.edu
Summary of Unit
Learning how to develop an opinion, support it, and present it in a professional manner is crucial in a variety of settings: whether it be at a business meeting, written on an application, dinner out with a friend, or in the classroom. Over the course of the unit students will develop an understanding of persuasive writing. Through the exploration of editing, revising, planning, rewriting, relative vocabulary, and investigations of audience and personal explanations students will develop the skills needed to write a professional persuasive piece.Establish Goals
Common Core State StandardsContent Area: English
Grade level: 11 & 12
Domain: Writing
Cluster: Production and Distribution of Writing
Standard #5: Develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach, focusing on addressing what is most significant for a specific purpose and audience.
Students will understand that
•strong writing is achieved through planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or changing the approach of the work.•establishing the most significant vein of their work and developing a voice and thesis that portrays it is essential to a well-developed piece.
•considering the intended audience is imperative to making your voice, as a writer, heard.
Essential Questions
•How can I revise, edit, or rewrite my work to strengthen its potency?•Why is my thesis significant to what I am hoping to achieve?
•How is my audience going to respond to the manner in which I portrayed my view?
Students will know
•Sequences and timelines:How to establish a factually sound and clearly focused persuasive essay.
•Terminology:
Claims, radical revisions, reverse outlining, thesis.
•Critical details:
How vocabulary and tone influence the audiences interpretation of the persuasive essay.
Students will be able to
•express their voice in a concise and supported manner.•evaluate work for improvements to support their understanding of revision techniques.
•produce an outline.
•infer their perspective professionally and respectively.
•consider the opposing opinion and use it to strengthen their work.
•recognize the intended audience.
Performance Task Overview
After becoming the head anchor at your network news station things have become rather slow, what could you possibly do now after reaching the top? Luckily, the president of the network feels the same way and has been asking for fresh ideas, specifically, he mentioned that you could lead your own editorial! So now what? First choose a topic that impassions you, one where even the thought of it makes you feel as if you could talk forever! Develop the idea and consider how your own opinion will be interpreted by your audience. Will they agree? If not, what awesome mind powers could you use to change their opinion? Also, remember that your audience is different than someone else's, so what do they want to see? Come up with an iMovie presentation of your incredibly interesting editorial to show to the board of producers and the network president; if this works out you could be on your way to having you very own talk show! All you have to do is be selected: fortunately, you are the head anchor so it should be a piece of cake, right?Expectations
Absences: The best way to succeed in your classes is to attend every class. However, life happens and sometimes you cannot make class. If this happens it is your responsibility to contact me to receive any work that you may have missed. Any work that you missed must be turned in within one class week for credit; for example, if you are back in school on Monday, then the following Monday is when the work will be due. If for whatever reason you will not be able to meet this deadline you must contact me ahead of time, be prepared to give me a reason and to provide a date that you will give me the work. Note: If you do not contact me ahead of time your work will not be accepted after the week-long grace period.Plagiarism: Plagiarism is the act of taking another person's work and trying to pass it off as your own. I expect citations for any work in which you referenced an outside source, no exceptions. However, this does not mean I will not allow you the opportunity to fix it up, though after one revision any plagiarism present will be subject to school policy. Additionally, websites such as Turnitin.com will be used to monitor the originality of all students' work.
Assignments: All work should be completed on by the due date as a realistic amount of time will be allotted for all assignments. If there is any doubt about the fairness of the time given bring it to my attention and be prepared to support it; I am not unreasonable, in a case like this due dates will negotiable. Furthermore, sometimes things in life happen and you will not be able to complete the work on time. If this happens it is the student's responsibility to contact me ahead of time and make arrangements for an alternate due date.
Classroom Expectations: In the classroom, everybody will treat each other with respect. Any malicious or negative behavior will be handled immediately; I have a no tolerance policy on this. Also, in class I expect everybody's full attention and participation, if you have a thought or question please share it, chances are that somebody else has the same one. Finally, just come to class positive and with an eagerness to expand your horizons. Education is not meant to upset you, rather nurture and support your passions!
Benchmarks
•Garage Band: After exploring the affects of writing concisely and supportively students will have learned the necessary tools to understand and implement words usefully. To further explore this, students will choose a poem and investigate its meaning and record themselves, using Garage Band, reciting it and using meaningful vocal fluctuations, pauses, and other spoken devices, to get the poems point across. After which, students will write a justification for their performance as well as their poem analysis.•Google Docs: At this point students will have their last draft before their final work complete. Students will upload their work to Google Docs and make it available to their peers. Each students will be expected to read multiple essays and leave feed back, as well as justifications for their comments, to prove that they have a firm understanding of the lesson.
•Inspiration: This is the first lesson in the persuasive writing unit. Due to this, students will still be fairly naive in the manners of writing for this unit, because of which students will be given explicit instructions to create an outline, using Inspiration, for a previously discussed topic. Throughout the course of the unit this topic will continually evolve and mature into a strong final paper and presentation that will concretely illustrate the students' abilities.
•Read and Write: Students will have been divided into two large groups: each group representing one perspective in a class wide debate. Using Read and Write students will create a strong outline showing they have investigated the topic and developed strategies for overcoming the perspective of the other side; doing which, will perpetuate their ability to interpret and use opposing opinion in one's own work.
•Pages: Each student will be assigned a person with many characteristics; the students' job is to develop an understanding of their persona and create a brochure, using Pages, profiling the character and stating what they would like to observe in a persuasive piece.
•iMovie: Finally, the unit's last project is an iMovie. Using the topic discussed in their persuasive essays students will produce a news editorial. In each presentation, students will be judged on their ability to interpret and apply all previous lessons into one large production. The students will play a news anchor for a major news network (CNN, FOX, ABC, NBC, Comedy Central, or other that must be approved by the instructor) and stylize their performance and production to appeal to the audience of the network they chose.
Grading Scale
A (93 -100), A- (90 - 92), B+ (87 - 89), B (83 - 86), B- (80 - 82), C+(77 - 79), C (73-76), C- (70 - 72), D+(67 - 69), D (63 - 66), D- (60 - 62), F (0 - 59).